Who are your candidates for a career year in 2018?

[Frobby]

Who do you think has a career year in 2018?     By my definition, a career year is the best year the player has had to that point in his career, excluding rookie seasons.   And, it has to be a pretty good year on an objective basis (I’m not interested in Ryan Flaherty’s best year).    By that definition, here’s some recent history of Oriole career years (by rWAR):

2012 - Adam Jones, Chris Davis, Jason Hammel, Miguel Gonzalez, Jim Johnson, Darren O’Day

2013 - Adam Jones, Chris Davis, Manny Machado, Chris Tillman

2014 - Adam Jones, Steve Pearce, Nelson Cruz, Zach Britton

2015 - Manny Machado, Caleb Joseph, Wei-Yin Chen, Zach Britton,  Darren O’Day, Brad Brach

2016 - Jonathan Schoop, Kevin Gausman, Chris Tillman, Zach Britton

2017 - Jonathan Schoop, Tim Beckham, Dylan Bundy, Mychal Givens 

Who do you like for 2018?   I’d say the best bets are Trey Mancini, Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman and maybe Tim Beckham.   And hopefully Miguel Castro.   

[foxfield]

Well, I hope we can add Manny. For all of the reasons. Wins, trade value...

[El Gordo]

Manny. Bundy, Givens, Gausman, Castro, Beckham.

[Lucky_13]

Beckham, Bundy, Gausman and dark horse of the century Mr. Mike Wright 

[Aristotelian]

14 minutes ago, El Gordo said:

Manny. Bundy, Givens, Gausman, Castro, Beckham.

Mancini and Hays.

[Aristotelian]

3 minutes ago, Lucky_13 said:

Beckham, Bundy, Gausman and dark horse of the century Mr. Mike Wright 

My dark horse is Trumbo.

[El Gordo]

I think both Trumbo and Davis bounce back somewhat but not career years. I look for Mancini to suffer a bit from sophomore jinx.

[murph]

Bundy.  By far my favorite pitcher to watch and I have high hopes!   TOR starter on his way!   

[murph]

24 minutes ago, Lucky_13 said:

Beckham, Bundy, Gausman and dark horse of the century Mr. Mike Wright 

That horse may actually be invisible.    ?

[Spy Fox]

25 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Mancini and Hays.

Hays is still a rookie, so he wouldn't count under the OP definition. 

I tried to think of a strong candidate that wasn't mentioned yet, but we don't have that many to choose from. Many of our hitters probably have their top season behind them. 

Gausman and Bundy both having career years pretty much seems like a prerequisite for a contending season.

[wildcard]

Any Oriole except Britton.   He can't have a better year than 2016.

[spiritof66]

21 minutes ago, murph said:

That horse may actually be invisible.    ?

I immediately thought of Tornado, the very dark horse ridden by Zorro (the Guy Williams TV  version) .

I'll go with Beckham, Bundy and Manny. Caleb if he gets enough playing time.

[OFFNY]

o

 

K.J. Gausman.

 

o

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Contract year Manny and Gausman.  

[Luke-OH]

Bundy, Beckham, and Givens